THE OBVIOUS, INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM OF THE NORTH RIVERFRONT GREENWAY TRAIL DEVELOPMENT

This is the website for the trail:

http://www.greatriversgreenway.org/trails/north-riverfront-trail.aspx

The "greenway" trail from downtown runs 11 miles between Hall street and the river until the Riverview and Hall intersection, and then comes out from behind the industrial sprawl of Hall street and continues between Riverview Blvd and the river, until Chain of Rocks bridge.

The Riverview Metro Bus Transfer Center is located at Hall and Riverview.  It is a big intersection, and there are no pedestrian crosswalks north of Hall.  In fact, there is no crosswalk on Riverview from Hall street until the Greenway trail crossing at the water reclamation plant north of Spring Garden.

There are no bus stops on Riverview north of Hall, even though both the #61 Riverview and #75 Lilac-Hanley turn at Scranton, across from the North Riverfront Park parking lot and public facilities. 

The bridge over Maline creek, just north of the intersection, is out on one side, the west side.  If you are walking up Riverview, as a lot of people do, you must cross the street to go over the bridge, and then cross back again if you want to walk on a paved trail.

It is from the east side that the Greenway Trail emerges.  If this Greenway were anywhere south of Delmar, or west of Union, they would be promoting using public transit for a part of the Riverfront Trail's 11 mile stretch.  (Ride from downtown and take the bus back, or vice versa.)

Of course, if you ride the bus from Metro's Riverview-Hall transfer center, you see some of St. Louis' ugliest secrets out in the open.  First, you will see the many, many railroad tracks that run along Hall and Broadway, and wonder why the Metrolink hasn't been extended north?  Especially considering the second thing you will discover: that by bus you will need to travel at least 40 minutes to the nearest Metrolink, regardless of what bus line you ride.  Third, again, no matter which bus you take, you will travel through the most impoverished and crime ridden neighborhoods in St. Louis. 

If this were south of Delmar, there would crosswalks and the bridge would have been repaired and re-opened on the east side of the street.  There would be clear signage and sidewalks and lighting.

For about three months there was a big bag of garbage lying on the sidewalk over the Maline creek wash.  There are no lights on the bridge for the bike path and it is in very bad repair.  The bike path has a blind corner, where locals say there has been at least one mugging of a bicyclist.

At the end of the trail, Chain of Rocks Bridge parking lot has been closed.  The concrete barriers are always in place, and the lot is overgrown and neglected.

The city of St. Louis keeps the "finger" of Riverview because of the riverfront park, the Chain of Rocks bridge, and especially, the property and income tax from the wealthy homes that face the river along Riverview drive and the bluffs above it.  The "finger" of St. Louis city really belongs to the county municipalities of Glasgow Village and the Village of Riverview, and the Riverview Gardens School District.  

The North Riverfront Greenway Trail is the type of negligence that is common in north Saint Louis city and county.  It is obvious racism, the kind that has been institutionalized for so long that few people question it.

In St. Louis, all Greenways are NOT created equal.

INTERPRETING METRO'S PROPAGANDA

I can't seem to let go of this bit from the Metro website (from this post).  It contains so much editorial (called "marketing") and vague statements of "fact".

Why is transit important?

Great cities have great transit systems. The St. Louis region is a

wonderful place in which to live, work, and play, but in recent decades

its population and job growth has stagnated. To change this, the

region must move forward and boldly redefine itself as a catalyst for

entrepreneurism, an attractor of talented young professionals, and a

place that considers the needs of all its citizens. Transit alone will not

make this happen, but it does play a vital role in shaping the region’s

quality of life and growing its economy. Here’s how . . .

Transit moves thousands of

people every day to work,

school, and life:

✦

More than 50 million times

each year, someone boards a

MetroBus, MetroLink train or

Metro Call-A-Ride van

✦

Most Metro customers ride to

work or school

✦

Metro customers in Missouri alone

earn more than $2.2 billion in wages

annually

✦

Metro carries nearly 2 million riders a a

year to special events

Let's break this down OPT IN STL style:

"Great cities have great transit systems."

Move to Paris if you want a great transit system.  Or Chicago.

"The St. Louis region is a wonderful place in which to live, work, and play, but in recent decades its population and job growth has stagnated."

We don't have to explain that this is great place.  Like the author of this document, a big chunk of your paycheck must come from promoting the City of St. Louis.  Hell, we don't even have to ride the bus if we want to go to the zoo or out to eat or to City Museum.  We make enough money to buy a car. And eat. And own a house.  In a neighborhood without any bus lines.

If you live in College Hill, have never traveled, and feel lucky that you didn't get shot at walking to the local store, passing block after block of crumbling, neglected, buildings, to try to find something to eat on your $5.00 worth of food stamps, riding the bus with your last $6 and 4 to 6 hours of your time to apply for a job that pays minimum wage, you understand what we mean,right? WONDERFUL PLACE!

Now, for the second half of this sentence: "recent decades means in the last twenty years or more."  So if you are under 20, you don't remember when the region hadn't stagnated in population or job growth.  

In fact, if you are over 20, you may not remember that.  But hey, it's Metro's job to make this place sound great, and also make it clear that the inefficient transit system is not our fault! Jeesh, we're a bunch of Metro executives! We go home at 5 o'clock, and not on the bus!

To change this, the

region must move forward and boldly redefine itself as a catalyst for

entrepreneurism, an attractor of talented young professionals, and a

place that considers the needs of all its citizens.

To change this "the region" must move forward. It's not Metro's responsibility,  It's dependent on "THE REGION".

Region:

1.an extensive, continuous part of a surface, space, or body: a region of the earth.

We also don't know what it means to"boldly redefine" ourselves, here at Metro.  We just follow the same transit plan that every other city is following. We can barely keep the current transit system running, even with the 2.5 million in additional fares we are going to be jacking you for, over the next two years.

But we do know that "the region" need to become the "catalyst" 

Catalyst

1. a substance that causes a chemical reaction to happen more quickly, 2.a person or event that quickly causes change or action)

"For entrepreneurism"

1.a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

2.an employer of productive labor; contractor.

"An attractor of talented young professionals" :

Okay, transit rider, that does NOT MEAN YOU. In fact, you are the person we are going to sell to those "talented young professionals" for cheap labor (incarceration by lack of public transit) so that they can realize their dreams of riches and fame!

And now, for the last line, my favorite part (sarcasm alert!):

"and a place that considers the needs of all its citizens":

Look, people, we already explained that we only consider the needs of citizens that were born wealthy or have money!  We proved that when put a train line to Shrewsbury for Richard Gephardt's people to ride to Cardinals and Blues games downtown, instead of a train in North St. Louis.

Stop complaining, at least you can get to your minimum wage job.  What else were you going to do with that four to six hours a day you spend on the bus?

When we say "all of its citizens" we only mean the Slays and the Nations and the other wealthy white men in the "Good Ole Boy Network" Gang.

We at Metro spend a lot of time and money writing this crap, we can't be expected to provide good service, too!

More than 50 million times

each year, someone boards a

MetroBus, MetroLink train or

Metro Call-A-Ride van

We can count boardings, so this number is probably pretty accurate.It's really the only thing we at Metro can count accurately, without doing some actual work-- like riding the buses and trains and conducting rider surveys, etc.

Most Metro customers ride to

work or school

This is pretty obvious.  Where do most people go everyday? We at Metro just like to brag and we paid someone in marketing to come up with as many statistical blurbs that make us look good as possible.

Metro customers in Missouri alone

earn more than $2.2 billion in wages

annually

We pulled this number out of our *ss.  We gather almost no information from our customers.  This is based on statistical models.  As Mark Twain famously said "Lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Metro carries nearly 2 million riders a a

year to special events

We mean Mardi Gras and the Muny shuttle and stuff. We don't ever create shuttles for jobs or jobs fairs.  We can't actually count how many individual people ride, just that we have 2 million boardings for those special shuttles.  We also don't bother to tell you if that 2 million is included in the 50 million statistic for overall boardings per year.

METRO BUS AND TRAIN STATIONS NEED MORE PUBLIC TOILETS!

Buses aren't just slow and exhausting, they are dehydrating.

This is a common complaint and topic of conversation (second only to fares and slow service) about riding Metro transit.

My average trip by public transportation-- from the time I leave my front door, and including all the waiting between transfers-- is two hours.

An hour before I leave I stop drinking.  I'll go to the bathroom a few times, and always right before I leave.

Because at most Metrolink stations and Metro bus centers, there are no bathrooms.  And if you have to get off the bus to go to the bathroom, you are going to be late.  (And you might have a really long wait between buses.  Also, you may not be able to find a place that will let you use their bathroom without buying something, and if all you have is bus fare, well, then...)

If I am going somewhere for awhile, no problem re-hydrating.  But when I am going to a lot of places, with a lot of stops along the way (like job-hunting), I just go thirsty.

It is ridiculous, RIDICULOUS! and shameful that Metro does not address this.  They have all these excuses to make, and blame to place elsewhere, but USING THE TOILET IS A BASIC HUMAN NEED!

Metro is planning to use some of its development money (which the government does not allow them to use to improve existing services) to re-do the Civic Center bus bay.  Apparently, there are 16 bus lines that come through there and only 8 bays.  Even though the bus bay is not overcrowded, and runs fine the way it is.

(There is enough room for the buses to park in the bay while driver's take their breaks.  I catch the #74 there frequently and the driver's always have a 20 to 40 minute break-- at least in my observations.  Usually they will let people board and wait on the bus before they leave to go on their breaks.  Yet another reason to love bus drivers.)

Metro needs to address this issues and dump that plan for the Civic Center Bus Bay.  I am sorry that Metro executives are so clueless on what their priorities should be.

The North Hanley station needs bathrooms the most.  I'd be willing to bet that some of the longest transit trips have a stop at North Hanley.  To get from north St Louis city or county to one of those jobs in the county and Earth City and other middle-class suburbs, you have to get to North Hanley station.

And there are NO BATHROOMS.

Even a few porta-potties would be an improvement!  But there needs to be serious consideration to this MOST BASIC HUMAN NEED! There should be bathrooms, at the very least, at EVERY SINGLE METROLINK AND BUS TRANSFER CENTER!

Really, Metro, what is it going to take for you to wake up to the reality of life on your buses?

EDIT: Hey Metro, like Los Angeles, you could charge 25 cents to use the Metro bathrooms.